Born on the family farm near
Niekerk, Michigan, west of present-day Holland, Albertus John Rooks attended
country schools and the academy at Hope College from age 13 to 19. He
left Hope to teach in country schools near his birthplace for three years,
returning and graduating in 1893. He received a master's degree from the
University of Michigan in 1894 and began teaching in Muskegon, Michigan.

The synod of the Christian Reformed Church called Rooks
and Klaas Schoolland to be come professors in the literary curriculum
of the Theological School, to which non-seminarians were admitted for
the first time. Initially instruction was in Dutch, but in 1896

the first literary classes began
to be taught in English.Two years later the process began to convert the
literary curriculum into a conventional 2-year junior college program.

Rooks, continuing to teach classes, was named principal
of this expanding curriculum, while the rector saw to the seminary curriculum.
In 1904 the school was named in honor of John Calvin, and four years later
the junior college curriculum was expanded into a three-year program.
During Rooks's tenure the school acquired the land for the Franklin campus
(1909) on which the main building was constructed 1916-17. In 1914, Rooks
oversaw the beginning of the conversion of the three-year program into
a full, four-year college curriculum.

In 1918 the Board of Trustees created the office of president.
When Rev. John J. Hiemenga received that appointment, Rooks was named
Dean of the College, but the student body continued to call him "Prexy."
He retired from teaching in 1939 and as dean in 1942. Rooks studied for
his doctorate in Europe but did not complete the requirements due to the
deaths of his mentors.

He married Kate Corbijn (1871-1915) and they had two sons,
Henry Corbijn Rooks and another who died in infancy. In 1916, he married
Grace Oostining (1887-1967), they also had two children Rhinedale Rooks
and Marius Rooks.